The Sleepy Eye Area fastpitch 18U softball team won the championship in the St. Peter Tournament last weekend.

The girls had a great start to the tournament after they shut out Worthington 13-0 in pool play. Laura Pelzel threw five strikeouts to lead in pitching, while Deonna Brinkman hit two doubles.

However, the team lost to St. Peter 2-8 in the second game. Carly Jensen pitched for Sleepy Eye and allowed five hits to get the runs going for St. Peter.

Sleepy Eye was dominant during the second day. The team won 4-2 against St. Peter Chaos, which put them in the championship game against Worthington.

Worthington got an early one-run lead in the first, but Sammy Villaneuva walked and scored on an error off of a sacrifice hit by Karlie Heiderscheidt to get things going for Sleepy Eye. Worthington responded with a home run in the third, but Jamie Fischer scored off of a double by Pelzel to tie the game in the fifth. The sixth inning was the most successful for Sleepy Eye, as Emily Schumacher hit a double for an RBI and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Larissa Helget to get the win.

On June 6, Sleepy Eye started their season strong with two wins against Cleveland. Sleepy Eye won 9-2 in game one of the doubleheader, after the team scored single runs in the first three innings along with five more in the sixth. Villanueva went 3-4 at bat and had two RBI to lead Sleepy Eye.

Sleepy Eye crushed Cleveland 16-1 in game two, after they scored four in the first, seven in the second and five in the third. Katelyn Christenson went 2-3 at bat and had five RBI to lead the Sleepy Eye team. Cleveland committed four errors in the game.

Another doubleheader took place on June 11, this time against New Ulm.

New Ulm proved to be a much tougher team to beat than Cleveland, after they beat Sleepy Eye 2-0 in the first game. New Ulm had seven hits and both runs were scored off of errors made by Sleepy Eye.

In game two, Sleepy Eye made five errors while New Ulm had seven hits. New Ulm got an early lead after they scored two in the first. Sleepy Eye tied the game 2-2 after the second inning, but New Ulm pulled away in the third after they scored four more and eventually won 8-3. Fischer, Bethany Berkner and Pelzel each had one RBI and one hit for Sleepy Eye.

The Sleepy Eye 18U, 16U, 14U and 12U teams are a part of the Amateur Softball Association, an organization based in Oklahoma that has over three million nation-wide members.